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Tags: Movie Set Travel / Celeb Travel / Justin Timberlake / Gossip Girl / Jesse Eisenberg / → All Tags

How To Be A Part Of Facebook's Biopic In Baltimore

Good morning, Baltimore! Here's something you'll want to update your status about, post on people's walls and create albums for -- the Facebook movie's coming to town! And whoever manages to appear in it will win a special prize from Mark Zuckerberg of potentially knowing that you exist.

"The Social Network" is already the most anticipated movie of 2010 for film geeks as well as people who spend too much time on their computers, thanks to the participation of "The West Wing"'s Aaron Sorkin, who signed on to write the script, and "Zodiac" and "Fight Club" director David Fincher. (I am Jack's nerdy roommate having a walk-and-talk with investors?)

Zuckerberg famously dropped out of Harvard to bring his baby to life, but shooting in Cambridge can get expensive -- that's if you even get the thumbs-up from the top brass, so it's off to Baltimore and the Johns Hopkins University. Students on campus found out this week that the crew will arrive on Sunday and be shooting Monday and Tuesday.

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Tags: Literary Travel / Edgar Allan Poe / Halloween Travel / Tourism Board Travel / → All Tags

Attend Poe's Funeral In Baltimore, If You Dare

Before "The Wire," Edgar Allan Poe held a monopoly on mapping the scary streets of Baltimore. Now Charm City is repaying the favor by holding a morbid bicentennial only a true Poe fan could love.

The writer will be lying in state at the Poe House and Museum (203 Amity St.) on October 7 from noon to 11PM for admirers to come pay their last respects. Show off your recitatory chops at a candlelit vigil on October 8 at midnight at the Westminster Graveyard (519 West Fayette St.), then don your dress blacks for the October 11 funeral procession from Amity House to Westminster. Creepy!

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Tags: Maryland Travel / Fall Festivals / Fall Culture Travel / → All Tags

Maryland Ren Faire Welcomes Jousting and Meat on a Stick

Hear ye, hear ye! Time to break out your floral headdress and blouson-sleeved coats, Jaunted readers; 'tis the season for Ren Faire. For a 33rd season, Crownsville, Maryland celebrates everything from jousting to archery at their annual Renaissance Festival. The merry event will be held every weekend, rain or shine, through October 25th, with a full scroll of activities that will take Renaissance enthusiasts back to a time when knights ruled the roost.

Before you don an epic costume and get your Robin Hood on, the official website reminds patrons that no costume or real weapons are allowed by guests. 'Tis a family-friendly event, after all. At the gate, an adult ticket will run you 18 ducats—er, dollars*—while a two-day pass can be purchased for $28. Wee lads and lasses the age of six and under are admitted for free. You also have the option of purchasing a cleverly-titled "Fairever Pass," which is good for the entire festival, will include your photograph, and grants you access to a private entrance to Revel Grove, where the event is being held.

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Tags: Television Travel / Mad Men / Baltimore Travel / → All Tags

Mad Men Takes A Sidetrip to Baltimore

As anyone who has walked by a New York City bus shelter in the last few days certainly knows, Mad Men returns to AMC for a third season on August 16. But while the omnipresent poster campaign ominously shows Don Draper drowning in his own office, producers have been extremely tightlipped about what’s going down on the show this season.

We did get this one travel-y tidbit from Baltimore Sun TV critic David Zurawik, who tells us that in the season opener, Draper will actually leave New York to spend some time in Baltimore.

Draper jolts down to B-More to visit his clients at the London Fog factory, reportedly spending the night at the Hotel Belvedere—you can check out this historic Beaux Arts building, although it’s been converted to condos—and of course grabbing dinner at the legendary Haussner’s Restaurant—another one that’s sadly, recently gone—although the space is currently for sale. Any fans want to snatch it up and open a Mad Men-themed restaurant? We'd be more than happy to have a highball there.

Related Stories:
· AMC's Mad Men: Don Draper is coming to Baltimore [Baltimore Sun]
· Make It an Old-Fashioned, Neat: Boston Bar Hosting 'Mad Men' Premiere Party [Jaunted]
· He's Just Not That Into Baltimore [Jaunted]

[Photo: AMC]

Tags: Dunkin' Donuts Alternatives / Donuts / Food Travel / Maryland Travel / → All Tags

Maryland's Candy-Coated Donuts Storm the Nation

Of all the crazy new donut shops we’ve covered in our Dunkin' Donuts Alternatives series, the one that seems most poised to knock DD and KK from their thrones is Maryland’s ultra-inventive Fractured Prune Donut Shoppe.

The kooky bakery started in the equally kooky beach town of Ocean City, Maryland, where there famous “O.C. Sand” donut—a flour cake topped with honey glaze and cinnamon sugar—got the craze going. But that’s probably their most basic donut—from there it only gets crazier. Try a Morning Buzz (mocha donut topped with Oreo crumble), a Peppermint Patty (mint frosted with mint chips), or a Trail Mix (loaded with banana, nuts, coconut, and jimmies/sprinkles).

Fractured Prune’s candy concoctions certainly appear to be catching on, as the chain has since expanded all across DC, Maryland, Virginia, and Delaware, and even has a few outposts as far afield as Ohio and Mississippi. Watch out, Dunkin!

Related Stories:
· The Fractured Prune [Official Site]
· Portland Has America's Craziest Doughnuts [Jaunted]
· Michigan Bakery Combines Donuts and Candy, Creates Cravings [Jaunted]

Tags: Music Festivals / Music Travel / Virgin Mobile FreeFest / Recessionomics / Richard Branson / → All Tags

Baltimore's Virgin Mobile Festival Drops Ticket Prices To Free

There’s been a lot of talk about 2009 being the year the music festival died, (see Summercase, Langerado and the San Francisco Blues Festival), and the long-rumored next casualty has been the Virgin Mobile Festival in Baltimore. Despite being a hit in its first three years out, concert organizers have waited forever to announce any details on dates or lineup, leading many around the music blogosphere to assume the fest wouldn’t be able to pull it together this year.

Well our old billionaire buddy Richard Branson must have taken those nasty rumors personally, because Virgin has announced that not only will the show go on, but they don’t need to make any stinkin' money on it anyway. That’s right, this year’s concert is 100-percent free.

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Tags: Bus Travel / Baltimore / Megabus / Boltbus / → All Tags

Boltbus to Baltimore For a Buck: A Success Story

Any day is a beautiful day when one can get from New York City to Baltimore for less than the cost of a can of soda. And indeed it was perfect sunny weather in the Charm City when on Saturday, we took our own advice and headed down the interstate for the weekend.

After boarding the nearly-full bus at West 33rd Street and 7th Avenue, next to a Sbarro's where tourists were, for some reason, eating breakfast, we settled into the bus' leather seats. Immediately we hooked onto the WiFi signal before the bus had even left, and we enjoyed a stable connection all the way down to Baltimore.

In our frenzy to get online however, we made the mistake of opting for an emergency exit row seat with perhaps an inch more legroom (laptop screen space). Why was this such a bad call on our part? Because the middle few rows on Boltbus do not have power outlets, unlike the other rows with their standard-size double plugs. Rest assured that we would not make this mistake again on the return trip.

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Tags: Bus Travel / Baltimore / Megabus / Boltbus / → All Tags

Megabus and BoltBus Going Head to Head in Baltimore

A clash of the cheap bus company titans is about to play out on the unlikeliest of East Coast soils: Baltimore, Maryland. It's to this seemingly average destination that Boltbus will begin routes tomorrow, throwing a huge wrench into the dominance of Megabus' own 32 trips a day between Baltimore and New York City.

Already both bus lines battle to be called "King of the Expressway" on routes to Philadelphia and Boston, but these cities are both larger than Baltimore and already significantly served by other seedier bus companies, which will remain nameless.

Who will survive the bottleneck of the Charm City, however, especially since BoltBus matches the Megabus promotional starter fare of $1 each way? There is a huge difference between the two already emerging, however: Megabus only offers the buck seats to the first few reservations on each route, while Bolt is stamping every seat of their 14 daily trips with the $1 fare between May 7 and May 10—even the Saturday and Sunday drives. Rest assured that we'll keep our eyes on this developing situation, even though it'd be way cooler if we were talking about high-speed trains.

Related Stories:
· Boltbus Launching Service: Baltimore to NYC for $1 [Baltimore Sun]
· Boltbus Versus Megabus, Round Two [Jaunted]
· Bus Travel Coverage [Jaunted]

[Boltbus photo: Baltimore Sun]

Tags: Airport WiFi / Airport-WiFi-Map / BWI / → All Tags

Baltimore Airport Not Hip to Free WiFi

Last week Baltimore celebrated the unveiling of the first TSA checkpoint in the country -- and by celebrated, we assume they mean "did nothing whatsoever to mark the occasion." What they should have done was sprayed it with some ceremonial Purel, since the first cases of swine flu were also officially announced last week, but that might have caused more panic than it was worth.

If you failed to get that first special checkpoint a present -- perhaps, a 3.3-ounce bottle of poison -- you still have time to send it a proper e-card, but you'll have to pony up $7.95 for WiFi access in the terminal. If only the TSA would pony up for that.

So what's your favorite TSA checkpoint? Sarcasm fully installed, tell us what airport has the best or worst wireless access. No one has to know it was you.

Related Stories:
· TSA Announces Successful Implementation Of Federal Passenger Screeners At BWI’s Piers A and B Security Check Points [TSA via the Internet Wayback Machine]
· 6 likely cases of swine flu in Maryland [Baltimore Sun]
· Airport WiFi Map [Jaunted]t

Tags: Best-Jewish-Delis-Map / Delis / Food Travel / Restaurants / → All Tags

Best Jewish Delis in the World: Attman's in Baltimore

When Shira Lazar went behind the counter at Schwartz's Deli in Montreal, it got us craving some overstuffed pastrami sandwiches and potato latkes with applesauce. So this week Jaunted is taking a look at the Best Jewish Delis in the World. Got your own suggestion for tasty goody delis? Let us know.

Attman's Delicatessen in Baltimore proudly identifies its East Lombard Street location as being right in the heart of "Corned Beef Row." Once the center of B-More's thriving Jewish cultural and culinary scene, the street is no longer quite at its deli heydey, but the 80-year-old Attman's makes it still worth the trip.

With playful retro signs hawking all kinds of cured meats, the interior of Attman's looks like it hasn't been updated since it opened in 1927, and the food has also blessedly avoided any trend-induced changes. "The Original" Cloak and Dagger sandwich is corned beef topped with coleslaw and Russian dressing, served on rye, while the jumbo kosher hot dog is placed on a seeded role and topped with a grilled slice of bologna. Genius!

Being Maryland, no eatery can resist the lure of the state's favorite crustaceans, so while kosher-keepers will avoid this one, others can opt for a cup of Maryland crab soup instead of matzo balls.

Related Stories:
· Attman's Delicatessen [Official Site]
· The Best Jewish Delis in the World:: Katz's in New York [Jaunted]
· The Best Jewish Delis in the World:: Chicago's Ashkenaz [Jaunted]

[Photo: Mark Barry]

Tags: Jetblue / Southwest Airlines / AirTran / BWI / Travel News / LCCs / Airline Wars / → All Tags

JetBlue 'Protects Its Turf' By Adding Boston-BWI Flights

Once upon a time, America's Low Cost Carriers were united in fighting against the big bad airlines by providing cheaper fares and a better flying experience to passengers. Now, the LCCs have turned on each other. And it's not pretty. Actually, wait. Yeah, it is pretty especially if you want cheap flights.

JetBlue not only announced some unreal one-way airfare deals from its SoCal aiports ($99 Burbank to NYC, $29 Long Beach to Vegas) but now The Baltimore Sun reports that JetBlue has just added nonstop service from Boston to Baltimore/Washington International (BWI.) No offense to the folks in Baltimore but this is purely a move to piss off Southwest which has also announced plans for Boston flights in the fall.

One airline analyst said JetBlue is probably trying to protect its turf in Boston. Southwest could also serve people in Florida and other destinations from those same flights, further threatening some of JetBlue's territory.

The flights will begin in September and fly four times a day. And the introductory rate will be $10 cheaper than Southwest's introductory fare. And let's not forget AirTran is already on that route. But if you can choose between SW and JB why would you ever choose AT? No word on whether Virgin America will add BWI to its new Boston gates just yet.

Related Stories:
· JetBlue coming to BWI in September [B'More Sun]
· JetBlue adds BWI, sets stage for showdown with Southwest [USA Today]

Tags: Bus Travel / Buses / BoltBus / MegaBus / → All Tags

BoltBus versus MegaBus, Round Two

Have you thrifty travelers noticed cheap-o Northeast bus lines BoltBus and MegaBus have been getting a little less crowded (and a lot harder to get those $1 fares on) lately?

Yes, Jaunted's 2008 Best Travel Newcomer and its double-decker competitor are now very much on the MSM radar. The latest to check them out is ABC Baltimore, which ran a BoltBus vs. MegaBus comparison in anticipation of BoltBus' upcoming Baltimore-to-New York service, where it joins MegaBus, already running an astounding 32 trips a day between the two cities.

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